While artists join our staff as their real world commitments allow, we are led by actor/director

Mary McGinley.  Mary is the artistic director of the celebrated Carolinian Shakespeare Festival, a position she has held for over a decade.  In her 30-year career as a theater artist Mary has held a variety of jobs that include: director, coach, teacher, fight choreographer, designer and actor. 

With the primary purpose of helping other actors,  Mary went through extensive training as an actor.  She’s studied the traditional styles of Stanislavski, Method, Hagen, and Meisner as well as more physically based disciplines such as Chekov, Viewpoints, Mime and Clowning.  Her view is: whatever works best for the actor is the method he should use.

As a director Mary has worked on modern drama, comedy, original works and musical theater, with a special emphasis on comedy.  A Shakespearean scholar, Mary has studied and focused her work primarily on the classics for the past 10 years.  A member of the company at Shakespeare and Company, she specializes in Shakespeare with a touch of Moliere, Goldoni, Sheridan and Shaw thrown in for good measure.

Mary has worked as a director, actor, casting director and administrator with regional theaters around the country, including Carolinian Shakespeare Festival, George Street Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Orlando Theatre Project, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival and Touchstone of L.A.  She has a B.A. in Acting from Rutgers and a terminal M.F.A. in directing from Mason Gross School of the Arts.